


everybody wants to be a cat

by ElasticElla



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - This World Inverted (Shadowhunters TV), Cats, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-05
Updated: 2017-03-05
Packaged: 2018-09-28 11:54:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10099481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElasticElla/pseuds/ElasticElla
Summary: Gretel has a habit of collecting strays- especially cute, fluffy ones.





	

**Author's Note:**

> title from the aristocats song & beta'd by [candace](http://aleclightwoodisbetterthanyou.tumblr.com/) <3

When Maia comes home at half past three in the morning- fucking inventory- she changes in the dark, and crawls into bed. Gretel’s always been a heavy sleeper, but the cats aren’t, and the last thing Maia wants to promote is an early morning ‘let’s all run around the room and up the bookshelves and inevitably knock shit over’. She pats down her side of the bed before crawling in, slings an arm over Gretel’s stomach. A small soft cat resettles on Gretel’s stomach, leaning against her arm, and Maia’s eyes flick lazily down as she yawns.

And then her eyes open for real- they don’t have a black kitten. There’s Duchess up by her head, sitting in the window, Toulouse has just jumped off the bed, padding over to the scratching post, and Marie is sitting up now too, cleaning her paw and staring at Maia with her big blue eyes. 

Maia wipes her face, snuggling back into bed, she’ll talk to Gretel in the morning. She already has a feeling about how it’ll go, can’t even bring herself to feel any real annoyance that Gretel added a family member without her.

.

The smell of bacon wakes her, Gretel peppering her face with kisses.

“I made us breakfast,” Gretel says, and Maia looks at the overflowing tray of pancakes and syrup and fruit salad and bacon and grits.

Maia plops a piece of melon in her mouth first, “I already saw the kitten. Lemme guess, Berlioz?”

She looks around the room again, surprised none of them are begging for bacon. “They’re outside,” Gretel says, “and yes. The other kittens were beating him up! We didn’t have any more space so he had to share with this mean kitten, and he already got stitches- another night together would have opened them.”

“Mhmm.”

“And he’s getting along so well with Marie and Toulouse, they were all playing on the keyboard last night,” Gretel says, taking out her phone.

“And you still can’t get along with Simon,” Maia teases, cutting into the pancakes.

Gretel grimaces, “I put up with him. I let him have a beer last time he visited.”

“That was at my bar!” Maia says with a laugh. “You’re such a softie with the animals…”

She shrugs, “Animals are so much better than people.”

Maia shakes her head with a smile, and Gretel continues, “Except you of course. You were obviously a cat in a past life.”

Maia snorts, “A cat? That would be you hun.”

Gretel pushes the tray aside and Maia snatches up one last piece of bacon.

“That!” she says with a grin. “And all your slow mornings in bed-”

“I work night shifts.”

“-basking in the sun-”

“Vitamin D is important.”

“-liking your tummy rubs-”

“Oh come _on_ -”

“-and y’know, you are what you eat.”

“Gretel!” Maia exclaims, giggles overtaking her.

Gretel looks very pleased with herself, leans into Maia’s shaking side. Her fingers toy with the fringe on the blanket wrapped around Maia’s shoulders, and Maia’s eyes are wet- too much laughter bubbling up in her chest.

“Alright,” she says when she can breathe easy again, isn’t imagining Gretel’s past lives clawing up random people. “What’s the phone out for?”

“Oh!” Gretel grins, “I got a video of the three young ones playing on the keyboard.”

She opens it up to a freeze frame of Berlioz and Marie, turning to her more seriously. “We can keep him right?”

“Yeah,” Maia says, kissing her temple. “He better be a good little pianist.”


End file.
